The Jewish people suffer two great punishments in the Torah: for worshipping the golden calf and for listening to the negative report of the spies on their return from the land of Canaan (Israel). We read in our parasha that ten of the spies reported that it would be too difficult to conquer the land, scaring the rest of the people from even trying. G-d punished the people with forty years in the desert so that all men over the age of twenty perished without entering the land. This punishment was even greater than the penalty for worshipping the golden calf (where 3,000 were killed and more died in a plague), even though this occurred immediately after hearing the prohibition of idolatry from G-d Himself!
So, why was this mass death sentence decreed for the sin of the spies? Apparently, the people were too content in exile receiving easy food (the manna) and learning from the best teacher in our history, Moses. But G-d wanted the people to live in Israel. Their fear and their refusal to leave their comfort zone led to this mass punishment, and the stories of our forefathers are supposed to be lessons for us.
Our leading Medieval Rabbis – the Ramban (Nachmanides) and the Rambam (Maimonides) – expressed different positions on the mitzvah of settling the land of Israel. The Ramban holds that all commandments performed by Jews outside of Israel are only for practice, with their complete fulfilment only occurring in Israel. To translate the Ramban into a modern metaphor, Jews living outside Israel are like a reserve football team that have the best defenders and strikers with years of experience, who have but have never actually played a real game! Take their skills – Shabbat, Kashrut, Torah learning and so on – and transfer them to the Holy Land, and suddenly they could win the FA Cup Final or the Super Bowl! According to the Ramban, every Jew could be a hero, just by joining their people in their land.
The Rambam, however, holds that the commandment of settling the land of Israel is only Rabbinic in nature, until the majority of Jews live in Israel, at which point it becomes a Torah Mitzvah. Some point out that, with over seven million Jews now living in Israel out of an estimated total of 14-16 million Jews in the world, it could be that October 7th, 2023, was the tipping point when most Jews now reside in our Land, or that tipping point may not be far away.
Recently I had the honor of visiting Tel HaShomer Hospital to meet some of our injured soldiers. One 23-year-old (I’ll call him Avi to protect his anonymity), who had lost both legs and an arm, was sitting up and chatting cheerfully to the friends and family assembled around him. He talked about how he had received 35 liters of blood (seven bodies full!) during six weeks of surgeries and in intensive care (although he also mentioned that the record stood at 37 liters for another soldier!).
Avi told me that, once he receives his prosthetic limbs, he intends to return to yeshiva for two years and then study law, walk the Israel Trail and, please G-d, get married and start a family. Avi is one of our modern-day heroes. All our soldiers and our youth, who are helping the war effort in multiple ways, are Jewish heroes.
Rabbi Hershel Schachter, a senior Rosh Yeshiva of Yeshiva University, was recently asked about the parameters of the mitzvah of Milchemet Mitzvah – the commandment to participate in a defensive war to protect Israel. He answered that a law student in a US (or UK) university has the same obligation to fight as an Israeli living in Tel Aviv. Clearly, Israel currently finds itself in such a defensive war, and that obligates each and every one of us to help in whatever way we can.
So, what should this week’s Torah reading prompt us to do? How are we to react to the idea of spies warning us that Israel is too dangerous and we should stay in our comfort zones?
I believe that the time has come for every Jewish community outside of Israel to establish an Aliyah Committee. This would bring together those individuals and families who are considering Aliyah in the next year or so, to organize discussions and presentations by speakers (from Nefesh B’Nefesh, Mizrachi and others), to educate themselves, and others in the community about living in Israel. These committees could be aided by the Rabbi of the community, because Aliyah is a Torah Mitzvah no less important than Shabbat or Torah learning, which are the core offerings of every synagogue.
Who am I to recommend Aliyah after losing my wife and two daughters in a terrorist attack in the Jordan Valley last year? Well, let’s run the numbers. Since 1948, the majority of Jews killed for their belief were soldiers and terror victims in Israel. The number approximates to one victim per day over 76 years. During the six years of the Holocaust in Europe the number was over 3,000 Jews killed per day.
Alternatively, taking a longer view from the destruction of the Second Temple in CE 67 until 1948, had the Jewish population grown pro rata with the rest of the world, there would be 250 million Jews around today. Instead, there are 14-16 million. This represents a loss of over 250 Jews per day over 2,000 years! The modern State of Israel has saved hundreds of thousands of lives in its short existence and continues to offer Jews throughout the world an ultimate homeland in any emergency situation.
For the past nine months, we have seen rallies across Israel and around the world with Jews shouting, “Bring Them Home!” To whom is this call addressed? To Hamas? They’re not listening. To the government and the IDF? They are doing all they can. I believe it is addressed to all Jews in the Diaspora. It is Hashem calling out to all the Jews in exile, “Bring Them Home!” Now is the time to come home. Please start making plans, start an Aliyah committee in your community, and come home soon to live a complete Jewish life in Eretz Yisrael.
